Can You Become Better at English Listening and Speaking than Natives?

Is it possible to understand and speak English better than a native English speaker? Generally speaking, you might at some point be able to speak better than some native speakers, but not as well as others. Quite often people are able to approach near native fluency but still retain certain accents from where they grew up, or certain words or phrases that they are familiar with.

Striving to master the English language should be your goal. Even native speakers continually learn new words and new ways to express themselves. As Gabby said, it shouldn’t be a contest where you compete against native speakers, but you can challenge yourself to improve your skills every day. Keep learning new words and expressions so that you become better at expressing yourself in a variety of ways, and in different situations.

Episode Transcript below:

Hey there!

What’s up? How’s it going?

Welcome to Go Natural English.

I got a great question from an audience member, Ping.

Ping asked, “How can I improve my English listening and speaking so that I might even be better at English than a native English speaker?”

Woo hoo hoo, Ping, that is an awesome question that I would love to talk about in this quick English tip.

So, first of all, we have to think about “What does it mean to be a native English speaker?”

That is a topic that we could talk for a long time about.

What is your idea of perfect English or correct English, or fluent English even?

Now, the answer will vary depending on the person you ask.

So, that’s where you have to start in order to answer this question about how to be better at English than a native English speaker.

Now, I’m assuming that you mean something about being correct or fluent, or able to express yourself in a fluent way.

So, what that implies is that you’re an educated person who has communication skills.

We can have education from formal classes like in a university or – and/or – we can have education through everyday experience.

Now if you have both of those, that’s even better.

So, if you want to be better than even a native English speaker, you need those two things.

You need education, formally, but you also need the street smarts, or you need the experience, and you need to understand what makes a good communicator.

So, I’m not sure why you want to be better than a native English speaker, but maybe what you mean is you want to leave a good impression on people.

But don’t worry about competing about who’s a better or more native speaker.

I think the focus here – what we really, truly want, is to be able to connect with each other and to communicate with each other, and express our ideas fluently.

So, if you’re able to do that, then you are at the top of the English game.

You are an excellent native-like English speaker if you can do those things.

But the thing is, even native English speakers are always learning.

We’re always striving to better our communication skills.

I know that I learn new words and new ways to express myself through idioms and colorful expressions every day.

So, you have to look at language learning as an ongoing sport.

So, Ping, I hope that that helps with your question.

I hope that that was useful, and if you’d like to know more about how to become fluent in English, both the book smart and the street smart way, then come to gonaturalenglish.com and I’ll be happy to help you.